When you install software on your computer, it’s very difficult to establish whether the software is legitimate, until you’ve installed and used the software and your computer still works effectively. Often malware can be integrated in to legitimate-looking software in order to disguise the installation of this malicious software.

Recent malware has been referred to as a ‘rootkit’. This is software that installs to your computer, on an administrator basis, with the purpose of hijacking system processes. Some of this rootkit software can be installed legitimately. For instance, there was a recent situation with audio CDs that installed rootkit technology to force you to play back the audio through the supplied software. When you attempted to copy the audio CD, the rootkit software prevented you from making a copy.

Panda Anti-Rootkit is software designed for one purpose: to analyse your system for the installation of rootkit, to advise and then to remove the rootkit from your system. You can use this software alongside your existing anti-virus software (particular anti-virus software that doesn’t look for rootkit technology).